intrepid510's Coffee Blog

I posted week or two ago that my wife had been experimenting with doing manual pour over with the Hario V60, and that she liked it. This was a huge step for someone that before this while really enjoying the fruits of my labor with brewing coffee would rather forego coffee if I was not present to make and would just toss in a tea bag in hot water instead. So another few events have happened that have me questioning things...

Read more

Read more

There have been a few things that I have noticed going on sale or close to going on sale that I have wanted to post about, but don't really deserve a full on post by themselves. So now that I have noticed a few things I would like to group them together to talk about.

Like sometimes happens when ordering coffee through the internet you end up in a spot where an order doesn't make it to you when you thought it would for one reason or another. In this case I had placed an order, but the roaster was out of that particular coffee so they had to wait if a replacement would be fine, and that is how I found myself this weekend without any coffee. There are others here that will go without for a while, and I do understand why as tomorrow when my order should arrive I will be swiming in coffee, but I also live in a an area with lots of local roasters.

Read more

Speaking of the recent comment by one of our bloggers about topping off you morning coffee instead of starting with a new cup, it reminded me of an article that I came across the other night about sloshing coffee in a mug as you walk.

While drinking great coffee at home is pretty easy to do when you pick out a good roaster, or some nice green beans to roast on your own and then brewing it fresh getting it's easy, BUT that exception cup of coffee can be fickle. I was reminded of this over the weekend while at the get together of other coffee enthusiasts at the time no one was restricted by the pressures of everyday life, i.e. no big deal to toss a few shots until you got one that was acceptable. This is why coffee can easily become an obsession it can be a fickle bean.

This past weekend I had the great experience of meeting with some like minded coffee enthusiasts from my area. It was nice to talk to other people that are probably as crazy about coffee as I am if not more so, and have a little more disposable income than I do (i.e. it was nice to see some machines that I have only seen on the net, looking at you Bunn Trifecta Home). However, one of the take aways from the visit was four little coffee beans that are ready to be put in a pot of soil to grow.

So as some of you may already know my wife is pregnant and has not been drinking a lot of coffee as of late. However, for whatever reason she has been much more interested in it recently and been having a few cups every so often of either regular or decaf. Her interest in coffee though has been mostly limited to either it being made in a pot or getting a latte made for her and to just go without if I couldn't make one or was far away from a shop.

Umm so where do I find that dead horse to kick because I am about to do so.

Read more

Read more

Read more

Read more

About a month ago a online blogger Daelyn Fortney, from This Dish is Veg, received a reported from a reader that Starbucks had begun using red dye from crushing beetles to create a natural product. The dye was ending up in things like the Strawberry frap that was at one time vegan friendly when paired with soy milk. As you can see by the photo that I lifted from her blog below. (see cochineal)

Recently, I came across a new community outreach project that Counter Culture Coffee is starting called, "Save our Soil." The basic gist of the campaign is that convential farming is depleting the top soil that allows for plants to flourish, and that is is especially true for coffee growing regions. In order to prevent soil degradation orangic farming practises need to be implemented, and the only way to do that is if we the consumers buy organic coffee.

One of the nice things about making coffee at home is the ability to adjust your coffee to your own preferences. One of my own preferences is to make a very low amount of coffee for drip brewing. When I mean low I mean low I like it at about 30 grams per liter, which is half the 'golden' amount that is recommended by most coffee roasters 60 grams per liter. I just find the coffee made from a drip brewer preferable at this range.

I had been wanting to pick up Jamican Craze for a while as I have been intrigued by the flavored coffee that is offered by Latitude 23.5. I am not normally a flavored coffee person, but when it's done right it can really make coffee into a nice desert like drink that a lot of people like, which I think can be evident by the rise of a lot of the coffee shops that have sprung up.

I was really excited to see P.T.'s back here on Roaste, about two weeks ago and took no time to make an order with them. P.T.'s is one of those roasters that is held in high regard and so it's great to be able to pick up some of their coffees here. That being said I immediately went for Southpaw Espresso.